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The new book features individuals seeking new beginnings, attempting to leave behind substance abuse or toxic relationships, only to witness hope devolve into violence. The author often employs the phrase "fresh start", rendering it intentionally weary through its repetitions. Examples include "He was ready for a new beginning" and "They decided to make a fresh start" appear throughout the narrative. And yet, the author herself appears to be undertaking her personal new beginning, because this presents as a new kind of book – documentarian, genuinely novelistic. Yet it turns out to be packed with the recurring issues and aesthetics as earlier books.

From Accidental Writer to Cult Classic

Chris Kraus began as an visual artist who became a writer unintentionally with her 1997 cult classic I Love Dick, which was composed of missives to a distant beloved, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into rebellion. She kept producing books, but the following three engaging and challenging novels did not possess the power and directness that the correspondence format infused into the narrative voice of I Love Dick. It didn't help was her role as a nonconformist creator who had become a large-scale low-rent landlord, so there was considerable focus on real estate deals. It follows that she now wants to experiment with different types of content, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a time when she claims that contemporary political climate renders personal narrative obsolete.

Three Generations, Collective Unavoidable Background

The Four Spent the Day Together is organized into a trio of segments, covering multiple eras – each trapped by their pasts. There is the story of Emma and Jasper, representations of the author's parents, relocating from the urban environment to the Connecticut countryside. There is the account of Kraus, in the guise of protagonist Catt Greene, grappling with the delayed acclaim of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her addict husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one directionless individual by another in a community mostly forsaken by liberal ideals only a short distance from Catt's rural residence in rural Minnesota.

For this reader drawn to polished prose of the type Kraus herself tends to eschew, I was seduced by the novelistic voice of the first section.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the variety that Kraus herself often disregards, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial part. There is a novel degree of detail that accommodates trivial aspects, like the bucket that the protagonist as a child dislodges from ice at the beginning of the narrative, aided by her adored dad. "Look, an ice toy!" she says; "a nice toy", he responds, "the ambiguous meanings of language rolling around in their mouths like piece candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with interest and closeness. "Emma experienced a dreamlike sensation – not hers, exactly."

Letdown and Fragmentation

I was fated to feel let down when I expected this fresh tone could continue through the novel. Kraus notes here that she resents the satisfaction those who appreciate polished prose have taken from I Love Dick; she's dedicated to fragmentation, to the untidy aesthetics she shares with her hero writer Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her earlier works reasserts itself in the second segment. Catt is working on refurbishing multiple decrepit residences in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unsuccessful in assisting her husband control his drinking. She is overwhelmed as her spouse transitions between low-resource employment as an substance abuse counselor in a society propelled by the hostility and dread that underpins Trump's victory. A significant portion discusses about Catt being cancelled on social media, her listed profession modified from "novelist" to "property owner" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to care a little too much about this. On one occasion she remarks that she's looking into the killing so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would not understand, would not even see".

The Killing Story

Then we reach to the homicide in question – and the titular day spent by the victim with the perpetrator and his friends. The author possesses great source material, and reconstructs step by step what happened when Brandon came to meet Brittney after connecting via an application where she sold sex pictures. He anticipated intimacy but appears congenially to have passed the day in the company of her associates, wandering about fixing his automobile and paying for snacks and drugs, before being killed by gunfire by Brittney's partner Micah – a individual with mental health challenges who has often been institutionalized for aggressive outbursts.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that her twin drives towards ethical reporting and daring boundary-pushing clash in this segment. Yet I wished her to delve deeper into her personal fixations here. The standout figure is Brittney herself, who gains dimension partially because of the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman spiraling out of control in a troubled, forgotten town. Kraus tells us that Catt converses with Brittney in detention, but she fails to enact these dialogues. The complete segment feels oddly unfinished, to the degree that Kraus's narration ends almost mid-par